We allocate agents to three kinds of hierarchical positions: top, medium, and low. No monetary transfers are allowed. We solve for the incentive-compatible (IC) mechanisms that maximize a family of weighted social welfares that includes utilitarian and Rawlsian welfares. When the market is tough (all agents bear positive risk of obtaining a low position in any IC and feasible mechanism), then t...

IntroductionEnergy transition is a system-wide ongoing process during which transformative initiatives and actions may influence peoples’ responses to energy. Energy-related behaviour depends on socio-economic incentive structures, as well political, institutional, organizational frameworks (Mannberg et al., 2014). Previous research indicates that strategic orientations

Critics suggest that Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) may not generate improvements in well-being for participating stakeholders, and may in fact undermine indigenous rights. To ensure positive social benefits from REDD+ projects, the United Nations REDD Programme has proposed core safeguards, including local stakeholder participation; free, prior, and inform...

BACKGROUND Fentanyl-induced cough (FIC) has a reported incidence of 13-65% on induction of anesthesia. Incentive spirometry (IS) creates forceful inspiration, while stretching pulmonary receptors. We postulated that spirometry just before the fentanyl (F) bolus would decrease the incidence and severity of FIC. METHODS This study enrolled 200 patients aged 18-60 years and with American Society...

Mitigating the negative impacts of declining worldwide forest cover remains a significant socio-ecological challenge, due to the dominant role of human decision-making. Here we use a Markov chain model of land-use dynamics to examine the impact of governance on forest cover in a region. Each land parcel can be either forested or barren (deforested), and landowners decide whether to deforest the...

Pavlovian cues for rewards become endowed with incentive salience, guiding "wanting" to their learned reward. Usually, cues are "wanted" only if their rewards have ever been "liked," but here we show that mesocorticolimbic systems can recompute "wanting" de novo by integrating novel physiological signals with a cue's preexisting associations to an outcome that lacked hedonic value. That is, a c...

background and objectives: an association between socioeconomic status (ses) and poor health has been recognized. inequalities in nutrition have been associated with inequalities in health. this study aimed to identify the social variability in the food and nutrient intake of iranian households. materials and methods: this study was conducted in the framework of the comprehensive study on house...

Despite the fact that most competence-relevant settings are socially relevant settings, the interpersonal effects of achievement goals have been understudied. This is all the more surprising in the case of performance goals, for which self-competence is assessed using an other-referenced standard. In the present research, performance-goals are conceived as a social tool for regulating interpers...

How can the dynamic relationship between society, technology and nature be understood in order to derive operational concepts for sustainable development? How can long-term structural change in socio-ecological systems be deliberatedly shaped? These are central questions for industrial transformation research. They also form the background to this paper which discusses some conceptual issues th...